At Aaron's request, I put this as a header of a new thread, but here's the deal: I'm moving in about a month to a new apartment, which will be the first place I've ever lived that has ready-made Cable/DSL access (keeping in mind I'm also planning on buying a brand-new system in the next few weeks) and my plan was to not even bother getting a landline and just getting the DSL that's available (which will be Comcast) and using my cell phone for calls.

Really, here's my question: besides cost, what are some of the pros/cons of getting a DSL hookup besides the obvious of it being faster than dial-up? And I admit in advance that I'm Technically Challenged, which is why I'm feeling the need to ask in the first place.

I just moved and I went for the cable modem through Comcast. I didn't want to deal with a landline (Verizon does DSL in my building and they require a landline) and cable is much faster than DSL. Plus, I would have wanted to get basic cable anyway, so getting a cable/internet package made the most sense.

I haven't had any problems so far just using my cell as a phone and having the cable modem. I had Verizon DSL for 3 years before that and this is much faster. I would definitely recommend it.

I have Comcast's cable and cable modem and I love it. It hardly ever goes down, something my Earthlink DSL did all the time. I also use my cell phone and do not have a land line.

The one con of DSL, the farther you are from the phone co, the slower your speeds.

The one con of cable modems, the more people on your "line" the less bandwidth you have, but I've never had that problem yet. I get think I'm getting 3M down and 768K up. It was 1.5 down but I got an email from comcast saying to power cycle my modem to get the new "DOUBLE SPEED~!~!" they had promised for a while.

If you are getting cable from comcast, I'd say get the cable/broadband package from them to save money.

IIRC, they have been advertising a package with phone, cellular phone, television cable and cable internet all on one bill (and at a discounted rate the more stuff you add on to it).

If you can't get SBC there may be a provider in your area doing the same thing. In either case, I would think it would be comparable, price-wise, to paying for dsl or even dial-up from an internet-only provider.

Originally posted by ZeruelI have Comcast's cable and cable modem and I love it. It hardly ever goes down, something my Earthlink DSL did all the time. I also use my cell phone and do not have a land line.

The one con of DSL, the farther you are from the phone co, the slower your speeds.

The one con of cable modems, the more people on your "line" the less bandwidth you have, but I've never had that problem yet. I get think I'm getting 3M down and 768K up. It was 1.5 down but I got an email from comcast saying to power cycle my modem to get the new "DOUBLE SPEED~!~!" they had promised for a while.

If you are getting cable from comcast, I'd say get the cable/broadband package from them to save money.

If you are getting a dish, then get DSL with it.

Apartment buiding with no exposure out, so a dish is out of the question (NFL Sunday Ticket, I'm going to miss you so much *sniffle*). So really, the cable broadband is my only option if I go that way.

Originally posted by ZeruelI have Comcast's cable and cable modem and I love it.

I'm with that. Mrs. JJD and I moved into our new house in September and at the time we were told we could have Comcast, which we had in our previous apartment. When the Comcast guys came out they were unable to hook us up due to some incomplete underground work on their lines, and they told us it would take about a week to be up and running. After three weeks, we decided to go with the other alternative for our digital cable, internet, and phone. (Hey, we were desparate for some TV.) The quality of the internet commection was good, but I found the cable to be less desireable than Comcast's and the remote (of all things) was a piece of doo leaving us unable to effectively browse, nevermind the fact that their menu interface was unwieldy and much lamer than the Comcast one I had become used to.

The last straw for us was when they told us we couldn't use AT&T for our long-distance provider as we had for a long time, I told them to go with whomever was the least expensive. Two months later we received an MCI bill for over $200, with some calls billed at as much as .35/minute! (Luckily, MCI resolved this issue for us.)

Finally, after going through a "I can't take it anymore!"-moment, I called Comcast and they were now officially able to hook us up. I get every channel on digital cable and my cable interenet through Comcast for $145/month, only $10 or so more than I was paying for phone, cable, and internet. Plus, now my long distance is through Qwest and I just got a phone bill for $9.12 for May.

Originally posted by ZeruelI have Comcast's cable and cable modem and I love it.

Ditto. Save for one mystifying experience last year which ended up being a dead power source for the modem, and some line degradation underneath my house, I haven't had a problem with it for the two years I've had it. The service people here locally at least are great. I'm a bit perturbed that they're cutting back on the PPV options on the analog cable, but I've been expecting that. I rarely order movies or anything anyway, but sometimes when I'd get off of work late I'd order a movie to watch. Now my only option is porn.

I'm not a big fan of Comcast as a company, but my old cable company (Adelphia) was excellent for internet service. I can't say for certain about Comcast's service, though, because a year after they told me they would have broadband in my area, they still don't. I get my broadband through BellSouth DSL. The service has gone down a few times in the last year, but never for very long (a few hours at most). I recommend getting a landline anyway, as it provides better service than a cell phone as far as connection strength and reliability. It only costs $20 a month.

I hate Comcast. Would never give them a dime of my money every again. Lousy customer service, crappy channel selection, and painfully slow Internet service. PLUS, they're overpriced. So when I moved to Seattle, I picked up DirecTV and got DSL through Speakeasy (speakeasy.net), and never looked back.

Great customer service, technical support that doesn't talk to you like a four-year old, and the ONE time I had an outage (for about a day), they credited me a whole month's worth of service. In fact, when I moved into my new apartment recently, they upgraded me to 1.5 mbps for about ten bucks LESS than what I was paying for my original 768 mbps service.

Plus, they gave me a free Gamecube that is happily sitting next to my TV gathering dust.

We had Charter cable and internet for two years. The cable portion was a bit expensive, but the internet service wasnt. We had the expanded cable package and the highest internet you could get, and it was about $87 a month total. Never had a problem with downtime, ever. The one time I thought I did, I called customer service, and they suggested I go to me control panel and under the modem feature right click on connection and chose repair. WIthin about half a second it repaired itself and I was back online. Never had a problem with it at all. The download time was great. I could DL programs in less than 20 seconds nad have them installed and running in minutes.

Having a nice house in the country rules, and no nieghbors waking me at 730 an Saturday mornings cutting thier grass is awesome, but having to go from Cable to Dial up, I feel like i have been punished.

Originally posted by Blanket JacksonI realize area costs may vary slightly, but how much per month is the basic cable/cable modem package?

Right now it's about $20 per month, then it bumps up until a little over $30 (I think) after 6 months. Not too bad at all...

Holy crap. Where are YOU getting it? I think it's around $50/month here...

According to his profile, he's from DC. I'm just north of the city and my combined cable and broadband bill is $70 a month. I get regular cable (not digital cable) and get the package that included everything but the movie channels (HBO, showtime...).